COLUMN: A season of gratitude

   Sports-related things I am grateful for as we bolt into August:

   • The Great Jones County Fair is over. Just as significantly from an Express standpoint, the Great Jones County Fair Souvenir Issue is off our desks and in your hands.

   Of course, we’re never really done with the fair.

   • The Monticello Cubs. They made a late-week announcement that they were making up an Eastern Iowa Hawkeye League game against Rickardsville Friday evening.

   Which meant I could drive the mile or so from home to get a few photos Friday, rather than making the trek to Dyersville for their tournament game Sunday night.

   I’m also grateful the Cubs put up six runs in the bottom of the third inning Friday, thus giving your local Express sports photographer multiple opportunities for photos. It can be tricky to get enough pictures when neither team is scoring.

   • The upcoming Monticello football schedule. Those of us who go to every Panther game paid our dues last year, making road trips to Maquoketa, West Liberty, Camanche, and Northeast of Goose Lake.

   This fall, all four of those faraway foes will come to Dean Nelson Field. The longest trip we will have to make (in the regular season) will be to Tipton. Other road games are at Cascade, Dyersville Beckman and Anamosa.

   • The joy of over-under betting on season win totals. Mine, this summer, is on the Minnesota Twins, who need to finish the season 83-79 or better (the O/U was 82.5) in order for me to cash.

   The Twins are keeping it suspenseful, hanging right around the 4-over-.500 mark for most of this season. So even though the absurd blackout rules prevent me from watching my team on a regular basis, I have been following their scores much more closely in 2022 than in recent years.

   The money has been put up; now I just get to watch and wait without having to fork over more. It’s the bet that keeps on betting.